Daily Archives: 10/06/2016

There are only a few spaces left on our hospital shadowing programmes this summer!

Make sure your students are the ones that stand-out on their applications for medical school and university by passing on this email and encouraging them to register their space as soon as possible.

From taking temperatures in Tanzania to ward rounds in Warsaw and community healthcare in the Caribbean; our placements open up a range of possibilities to help your students choose the career path that is right for them.

Taking part in a hospital shadowing placement will help students to add focus and context to their further studies while giving them the opportunity to experience global healthcare in a truly unique way.

If your students are interested in shadowing in a more specialised department such as radiography or physiotherapy we are also happy to help.

We offer group bookings as well as individual placements so if you would like to find out more about how Gap Medics can help future doctors, nurses, midwives and dentists in your school to achieve their dreams, give us a call on +44 (0)191 603 1111 or email info@gapmedics.com

Last week an employee of one of the companies that stores items in the Admiral Storage Facility dropped a box on his foot in the warehouse and swore. The swear word used was a fairly common one, but nevertheless a word that one might be shocked to hear to come from the mouth of a vicar or a headteacher. Or come to that a doctor or… well I am sure you get the point.

No damage was done to the gentleman’s foot, and after a moment’s hopping around and a few short intakes of breath, plus an apology for the verbal outburst, peace, quiet and calm was restored in the world of Admiral.

Back in my office sipping my afternoon cup of tea and taking my 15 minute break as allowed under the “Having a break in the afternoon with a cup of tea Act 1997,” I began to ponder one of the great unanswered questions: why do people swear?

There being not much of interest on TV that night I began to do a little research on the subject, and lo and behold I discovered that three academics from Keele University had indeed undertaken a full investigation into the subject.

What they did was ask a bunch of students who were on the B.Sc psychology course to volunteer for an experiment. Their reward was to be a £4 voucher to be spent in the canteen.

To get this bountiful offering the students had to place one hand in icy water. They were then asked to keep their hand in the water for as long as they could, but while doing so they should either remain quiet, speak calmly to the experimenter about how they were feeling but not in any way swear, or swear vociferously and forcibly.

During the process the students were wired up to a variety of machines, the purpose of which I now forget, but which were all undoubtedly very serious and important and included things like measuring heart rate, sweating on the brow, frowning, and other facial movements and so forth.

What they found was that taking into account individual differences concerning pain thresholds and pain perception, the swearing group were invariably able to cope with pain more readily than the other two groups. These swearing people also reported a lower rate of pain perception compared with the other groups – again taking into account individual differences.

This would suggest that swearing actually has some sort of beneficial effect – which is presumably why it has caught on.

But this led me to wonder what is happening now that swearing has become much more a part of everyday life than it ever was before. Does that mean that the effect of swearing when faced with pain is lessened?

Apparently the answer is yes – unless one swears very loudly – much more loudly than the individual would normally talk. And from this it was discovered that it wasn’t so much the swearing that relieved the pain but the doing of something one would not normally do.

Thus people who swore a lot but tended to do it as part of their everyday speech needed to swear at high volumes and a lot in order to reduce the effect of pain. On the other hand, people who didn’t swear and tended to be fairly quiet could in fact relieve the pain simply by shouting quite a bit.

Now for most of us that would have been enough – but not for this research team. At the time of the research temperatures outside were dropping, and the next day there was a lot of ice on the walkways around the university.

A separate research team had been waiting for this eventuality for some time in order to carry out their own experiment which involved putting thick woolly socks on over regular shoes to enhance the grip as one walks on ice and snow. The research proceeded to the expected results – that putting thick woolly socks on over normal shoes does help stop one slipping.

However they also found that a number of students refused to take part in the experiment. Indeed one who did take part and confirmed that he obtained extra grip, then declined to wear the socks thereafter as “they looked stupid.” He took the socks off, took two steps along the path, and promptly slipped over and shouted out a couple of swear words.

On hearing of the research findings of the team using the bucket of iced water, the team with the socks concluded that given that they had only a limited number of socks available their best bet would be to offer the socks to students who were not prone to swearing, since they didn’t have an obvious way of relieving the pain.

Fortunately, the weather as I write this is bright and fine. However, come next winter I do intend to introduce socks into the area around the Admiral storage facility.

You can find more information about our facilities on our website at www.admiralstorage.co.uk. Alternatively, you can call us on 0800 7839 516.

Our aim in setting up Learning Outside the Classroom Week is very simple – we want to encourage educators in schools across the UK who don’t engage in LOtC to do it. And we want those who do it occasionally to do it more.

Why? Because learning outside the classroom works. Indeed, as a mode of teaching and learning LOtC is probably the most powerful system that we have.

In believing this, the team behind Learning Outside the Classroom Week has been searching for the answers to two simple questions:

What is it that encourages educators to become involved in LOtC?

What is it that stops some educators in schools from becoming involved in LOtC?

The answer to the first question is obvious (or so we think).

Indeed, pupils and students can gain enormous benefits from LOtC that they either would not gain from learning inside the classroom or at the very least would not gain so quickly.

Such as, that learning outside the classroom is more readily remembered than learning inside the classroom. And that learning outside the classroom can also help pupils and students to develop socially and mentally.

There are also huge benefits for schools – benefits which parents are very quick to pick up on and which thus make the school more popular and parents more willing to get involved.

In asking the second question we quickly realised that there are several basic issues here, but that one barrier to LOtC is more prevalent than any other?

After analysing the results of a survey issued to educators in UK schools, both primary and secondary school teachers stated that transport was the main issue (50% secondary, 34% primary). Or, more specifically, the cost of transport.

So how can this be overcome?

In getting your school involved with LOtC Week which is running from the 27 June to the 1 July 2016 you will be privy to a wealth of information surrounding the issue of transport, including transport costs, restrictions, legalities, and regulations.

This information has been supplied by Benchmark Leasing – a company which specialises in the leasing of school minibuses and without whom LOtC Week and the research conducted ahead of the Week’s launch would not be possible.

I do hope you will take a look at the LOtC Week website (www.learningoutside.info/) and take advantage of all it has to offer. And if you find we haven’t covered a particular topic, please do email Jenny Burrows at <a href=”mailto:HQ@LearningOutside.info”